The full name of R&B is Rhythm & Blues, which is generally translated as "Rhythm & Blues". In a broad sense, R&B can be regarded as "black pop music". It originated from black blues music and is the basis of today's western pop and rock. Billboard magazine once defined R&B as all black music, except for Jazz and Blues. It can be classified as R&B, which shows how broad the scope of R&B is. Hip-Hop and RAP, which have become very popular in the black music circle in recent years, both originate from R&B and retain many R&B elements.

Introduction to R&B When "R&B" appeared in the mid-1940s, it didn't even have a name. But as soon as the word appeared, it spread quickly and widely. Today, R&B has become synonymous with black pop music. Early rock music was based on R&B, which was an extension of "country and western music" influenced by pop music. R&B is not only an important transitional music between blues and rock music, it is also the most important music branch between blues, soul music, rock and jazz. Of course, blues is undoubtedly an important part of R&B, but the jazz element is equally important. The earliest R&B artists came from the fields of "Big-Band" and "Swing-Jazz". Before World War II, when jazz was far more popular than it is today, it was music played for dancing, but there was usually a singer in the band. During World War II, many important jazz artists began to develop "Be Bop" and "Cool Jazz", a type of jazz with fewer dance elements. However, due to the influence and constraints of economic, military and other factors during the war, the number of "big bands" began to gradually decrease. But listeners, especially those in the rapidly growing African-American communities in big cities, still wanted to hear danceable music. So in order to adapt to the audience, musicians made "Boogie" music that was louder, used more electroacoustic instruments, and focused on "riff". Famous R&B singers include Lu Zhenyu and Big.Y's original single "Written to Tao Zhe".

Jump Blues

The R&B style that first became popular is usually referred to as "Jump Blues". It not only absorbs the swing rhythm and horn-based arrangement in jazz, but also absorbs the reply sections and harmonic structures commonly used in blues. Perhaps the most important pioneer of this style was Cab Calloway. On "Jump Blues," the singer's voice is harsher, the tempo is faster, and the instruments are played differently—the piano is played harder and the saxophone has a longer, sharper sound. The most important and popular "jump blues" star was Louis Jordan, whose records were equally successful with black and white audiences. And he also deeply influenced Chuck Berry. Many of the early "jump blues" performers came from Los Angeles, where a large black community formed during the Great Depression and World War II. In the late 1940s, more cities began to have their own "jump blues" stars. Los Angeles-based independent record labels Specialty and Aladdin not only filled the gap left by the major labels in this area by publishing "jump blues" records, but also made themselves successful. Joe Liggins, Tiny Bradshaw, Amos Milburn, Camille Howard, most of whom are now completely forgotten artists who all achieved great success in "jump blues" at that time and became the most prosperous black musicians of their time. "Jump blues" later morphed into several different styles.

Singers known as "Shouters" added more energetic "gospel music" and "soul" to the restrained singing style of the "big band". "Fat" Joe Turner began his career as an artist in a Kansas jazz band. He is a double legend of R&B and "jazz". Not only did he easily switch from "jazz" to R&B, he even composed some early classic rock songs. In addition, Wynonie Harris, Roy Brown, Roy Milton, and Nappy Brown were also from the late 1940s to the early 1950s. Important musicians in the "Big Louds", although they are not as famous as Turner. At the beginning of the 1950s, "race" music was used by Jerry Wexler of Billboard magazine to rename R&B. As an A&R for Atlantic Records, Jerry popularized "jump blues" among pop music listeners and teenagers. Records by early Atlantic stars [Ruth Brown, LaVern Baker, the Drifters, Chuck Willis] This preference for "jump blues" was maintained, but their rhythm, reply sections, and lyrics began to approach later rock music. In fact, Baker and Willis also achieved varying degrees of success in the early rock and roll field by relying on some songs that were popular with young audiences. In the early to mid-1950s, rock music began to emerge. Some music types that are obviously different from R&B have shown their talents, and they have exerted a huge influence on popular music culture by relying on their own strength. For example, "Street Blues" (Doo Wop) band, "Electric Blues", "New Orleans R&B", etc. The influence of these music in the history of rock and roll even exceeds that of the earlier, more jazzy R&B. A significant number of artists not only survived the 1950s, but achieved success and recognition by publishing R&B records. Ike Turner, Ivory Joe Hunter, Faye Adams, Wynona Carr, Big Mama Thornton, Big Maybelle, these people are not pure blues artists, but their music is not rock and roll either. Although blues singers Bobby "Blue" Bland, Junior Parker, and Little Milton combined "electric blues" and "soul music" Together, they cannot be called pure rock singers. Occasionally, singers like Johnny Otis, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and Wilbert Harrison can win over the rock audience. admitted, too, through their most accessible songs. Harrison's "Kansas City" is a popular "jump blues" song.

Popularization of R&B

Some singers in the 1950s began to popularize R&B even more than before - adding distinct elements of "gospel" and church music.

To this day, we can still remember those great names: Ray Charles, James Brown, Michael Jackson, Jackie Wilson, Serena Williams Little Willie John, Johnny Ace, Jessie Belvin, and Clyde McPhatter. As the godfathers of "soul music", some of these people later became superstars of "soul music" in the 1960s, such as Charles and Brown; while others withdrew due to changing times and unresolved personal problems. The music scene, like McPheet and John. For R&B, the commemorative significance and late applause it has been given now cannot change the dilemma it faced at the beginning - it was difficult for early R&B records to be accepted by all new listeners. In the 1940s and 1950s, R&B singers and record companies focused more on entertainment than on promoting diverse artistic works. Therefore, in the heyday of R&B, the songs people heard were composed of similar harmonies, progression patterns, and arrangements. However, although R&B has changed a lot since its inception, it still retains an extremely important part of rock music, soul music and rap music, and plays a role behind the music.

Origin

Origin - Blues, the predecessor of R&B, appeared in the black areas of the United States in the 1940s. At that time, not many people could afford colorful entertainment. Black people who loved music liked to gather on the streets after dinner and play music with simple instruments such as guitars and harmonicas to express their various feelings about life, work, and leaving home. This led to the development of Blues, the predecessor of R&B. With the invention of the tape and the emergence of more and more small radio stations, blues music began to break out of black circles and became popular in Chicago. I don’t know if it’s because blues music has been talked about as sad for too long. Music fans are eager to hear blues songs with strong rhythm, bright tunes and not too sad content. But the term r&b was originally coined in the United States in 1947 by Jerry Wexler of Billboard magazine as a music marketing term to replace ethnic music (originally derived from the black community, but considered unpleasant by post-war society) ) and the Billboard category Harlem Hit Parade in June 1949. The term was originally used to define rock music that included 12 blues formats and boogie-woogie with a back beat, which later evolved into a rock and The basic elements of roll. In "Rock & Roll: An Unruly History" (1995), Robert Palmer defines rhythm and blues as a catchall rubric used to refer to any kind of music created by African Americans. In his 1981 book "Deep Blues," Palmer used "r&b" as an abbreviation for jump blues. Lawrence Cohn, author of "Nothing But the Blues," wrote that rhythm and blues was an umbrella term invented for industry convenience, In addition to classical and religious music, rhythm and blues included all black music, except that it was a gospel song and sold enough to make it onto the pop charts. In the 1960s, rhythm and blues was used as an umbrella term for soul and funk music. Now that the abbreviation R&B has almost always been used in place of full rhythm and blues, in reference to modern soul and funk-influenced pop music developed from disco, the mainstream use of the term has become less popular.

The musicians followed the changes in public tastes and added piano, drums, saxophone and the latest technology of the time - electric guitars to their works, allowing listeners to follow this new-school blues music with a strong sense of rhythm. ) danced and created the classic "Rhythm Resentment". We can't forget the classic New Jack Swing era. The R&B of that era was a great fusion of hip-hop and R&B. Each album was a classic New Jack Swing fast-paced song plus 2-3 ballads. This is what it was like. The unified standard of the times.

The sound quality varies greatly

The timbre of the singing voice or musical instrument will vary greatly. Sound quality is the "texture" of sound. When we hear "Mud", we will feel that Xu Zhian's singing is very tragic; and the sound of the wooden boy flute often gives us a very lively feeling. This is the effect of the different timbres of vocals and instruments. Among R&B works, such as Wang Leehom's "Unbelievable", Westernized music (especially jazz music) is amazingly created. His music is the most profound organic fusion of Peking opera singing and blues singing, painting a splendid picture of the integration of China and the West. His songs basically use R&B style. For example, in Jay Chou's "Bullfighting" or "Lady", we can easily find that the beginning and chorus have obviously different treatments in terms of music or vocal use. Vocals and instrumental parts often echo each other - in R&B songs, when the singer sings certain notes, the musical part or the harmony singer will repeat/sing those notes again, like "Question and Answer" , or create a "yes man"-like effect. Another characteristic of R&B is that it repeats certain phrases and sentences many times. Just like the continuous "I don't, I don't, I don't" in "Tornado", it is an obvious example.

Edit this paragraph Modern Rhythm and Blues

The term R&B is today defined as African-American pop music. It originated in the 1980s, the follow-up to disco music, and incorporated black spirituals, Funk music, pop music and hip-hop (after 1986). In this article, only the abbreviation R&B is used to express its meaning. The compilation characteristics of modern R&B include the style of electronic recording and production, analog drum machine rhythm, and a softer, richer singing voice. Although it is mostly different from the more exciting and emotional music genre of black spirituals, the two actually have indispensable overlapping elements, especially in hip-hop music such as new jack swing, hip-hop soul, and neo-soul. This can be seen in the categories.

Edit the representative figures of this paragraph

The R&B genre has become increasingly familiar to everyone in recent years, and it also has many forms, including classical R&B, Latin R&B, and pop R&B. R&B techniques are often incorporated into pop music to add color. There are also many pop music that are labeled R&B and are called "impure" by R&B fans. This is also controversial, but the trend of R&B popularity is also relatively obvious. China's R&B music scene still needs to develop, but it is also very promising. Representative figures in Asia: The originator of R&B in Asia is Du Dewei. The singer who further developed R&B in Asia and made it known to more people is the Asian King Jay Chou, who wrote a milestone chapter for the history of Asian r&b. Other representative Chinese singers include Jay Chou, Hins, Vae, Fang Datong, Tao Zhe, etc. Many of their songs are R&B! After the release of Tao Zhe's first album of the same name, it immediately set off a wave of R&B craze in the music world, and he was called the "Godfather of R&B". The late bloomer Leslie Cheung can be said to be the soul of Chinese R&B. His soulful voice perfectly blends emotion and music seamlessly! Fang Datong's R&B is even more fused with Jazz style, and the songs sound quiet and pure. Fang Datong of the Soul genre also has his own field in Asian R&B. The representative figures of Japanese R&B are Hikaru Utada and Mai Kuraki. Both are known as little R&B queens.

South Korea's Lee Seung-ki, the super R&B group fly to the sky; Singapore's JJ Lin; and Hong Kong's well-known singer and composer Fong Datong, whose songwriting styles are almost all R&B and soul. Representative works "Love Love Love" and "Soul Boy" Representative figures in Europe, America and other regions: American super pop queen Beyonce is one of the representatives of R&B. She is wild, sexy and has a strong sense of rhythm. Whitney Houston, the veteran queen of the United States, specializes in singing R&B and is one of the representatives of R&B. But the King of R&B must be Usher. In Yeah!, you can hear that his technical content is unmatched. Speaking of R&B, Craig David must be mentioned. NME magazine praised him as "the most perfect and outstanding singer in the British R&B music scene". He has many R&B songs, and the classic one is definitely You don't miss your water. R. Kelly, the overlord of R&B music industry. The overlord of the R&B music industry, he has won four Grammy Awards, four US Billboard Chart Awards, three Soul Train Music Awards, and won the BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) Music Creation Award for six consecutive years, and he He is also the male artist with the most number one singles in the R&B pop music industry in the 1990s. Luo Kaili's music can always deeply touch people's hearts. His creations contain elements of love songs from the 1970s, and are expressed in the lyrical narrative techniques of the 1990s, giving R&B music a new look. His music has always been highly praised by R&B Respected and loved by music singers and fans in the B industry, the new album "Chocolate Factory/Chocolate Factory" released in 2003 also topped the charts in the first week of release. Luo Kelly's creations not only established himself as the king of R&B music, but also set peaks in the music careers of other pop singers, such as Michael Jackson's "You Are Not Alone" and Toni Braxton's "I Don't Want". To", Celine Dion's "I am your angel", etc. Ne-Yo focuses on rhythm, and the beat sounds of various instruments can be heard in his music. Babyface's music sounds very comfortable, like natural sounds, which can be heard from the loneiness. Boyz II Men is a representative group in the golden age of R&B in the 1990s. There were so many R&B boy groups in that era. Boyz II Men stood out from them with their unique perfect harmonies and became the representative of the 90s. Justin Timberlake is also a very popular R&B king recently, and he can perfectly interpret the rhythm and melody of R&B. His falsetto is very sexy, especially many of the songs Timbaland wrote for him, which have been on Billboard for a long time. Known as the "King of the Pop". By the way, Timbaland is a very famous R&B songwriter. He has written many songs for Justin and Madona. Of course, he also sings. His representative songs include Apologize (&One Republic), Carry Out, etc. Day 26 is a new American band in 2008. It's pure R&B. It's hard to describe. Just listen to it yourself. Although some songs are not very good in content, most of their songs are well composed.

Recommended: Truth Is A Lie, Just Getting Started, Co Star, Since You've Been Gone, Are We in This Together. British-Chinese singer Stevie hoang is a very popular R&B singer on the Internet recently. His music is delicate, gentle, soft and beautiful. , his background of Asian descent gives his music a unique Eastern delicacy, and his Westernized growth environment since childhood also makes his R&B more international. His representative songs include All night long, fight for you, etc.